The return of the Invasion of the Dragons festival in Waterford on the weekend filled Shadow Lake Park with paddlers, sponsors, music and vendors, all grateful to be back after a long pandemic break.
“This brought at least 2,000 people to Waterford this weekend,” said Gail Catherwood, one of the event organizers.
“People are seeing the best of our food trucks and the beautiful park, which some people didn’t even know was here.”
With 23 teams registered, about 450 paddlers, steers and drummers alone were at the party, surrounded by supporters, family members, sponsors and community groups that set up large tents and canopies along the lakefront and shared food and music throughout the day.
Catherwood said the Rotary Club of Norfolk Sunrise handled the food vending angle of the event while Alkame Dragon Boat Services from Pickering transported six long dragon boats, floating piers, paddles and dozens of life-jackets for the event.
The event is a fundraiser for Sunrise Rotary and the Norfolk Cancer Support & Resource Program.
“We had three boats of cancer survivors alone, which was more than 60 people, and this has been good for cancer support, local businesses and Abel Enterprises, which is making money for their organization,” said Catherwood.
Abel – a 40-year-old Norfolk County charity – supports people living with mental health or addiction issues.
Lyn Smith, the program manager who has worked with Abel for 39 of his 40 years, and a team were busy providing snacks to dozens of patrons on Sunday.
“Business has been great. It’s so nice to see people out and an event like this brings the community together.”
Smith said Abel specializes in vocational rehabilitation teaching useful skills like dry-walling, framing, roofing, painting and decking.
Program members were busy selling slushies, popcorn, chips and water, hoping to profit about $2,000 over the weekend.
One of the largest teams – the Lively Dragon Power Team — came from Hamilton, headed by Ramsay Drummond-Young and his wife, Jackie Taggart.
The couple started the team 20 years ago and organized the Dragon Boat races for a few years but are now happy to participate as competitors only.
“We’re a community team, not competitive but we’ve had some who have learned to dragon-boat and then moved on to nationals and championships,” said Drummond-Young, who himself has raced in three world championships.
With a take-all-interested philosophy, the teams in Lively Dragon can include people of all ages, shapes and sizes.
As a former organizer, Drummond-Young said the weekend’s event was well run, with more boats than some.
“Although I would like to see more medals offered. The value of that $5 medal is huge when you go home with it.”
The Pink Crusaders out of the GTA attended the festival for the first time, eating in Brantford on the practice day on Saturday and staying overnight.
“We only had 17 people so there were a few empty seats,” said former team captain, Nancy Martin.
“And we were discombobulated in our first race because we weren’t prepared for the weeds, but we got better.”
The Crusaders have raised thousands of dollars over the last few years in the Run for the Cure in Toronto, which also supports breast cancer programs and those involved in treatment.
@EXPSGamble
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